This week: Chapters four through 14, "The Counterpane," "Breakfast," "The Street," "The Chapel," "The Pulpit," "The Sermon," "A Bosom Friend," "Nightgown," "Biographical," "Wheelbarrow" and "Nantucket."
By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger
I had forgotten Ishmael had a step-mother.
One might view the novel as Ishmael’s tribute to Queequeg.
Thomas Pynchon has an interesting discussion of Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” in his essay “The Deadly Sins/Sloth; Nearer, My Couch, to Thee”. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-sloth.html?mcubz
I have read this novel five times before. The last four times I reread it while teaching it to high school students. The first three times I taught it the students complained about it all year. In the 2019 – 2020 school year, I asked my creative writing class if they wanted to read Moby Dick as one of their textbooks since 2019 marked his centennial. I warned them that my previous three classes had complained about reading it. The students said no, they wanted to try it. All year long they didn’t complain once. When we finished the book, I had them write an essay on whether they considered reading the book worth their time. They all said no.
The thing is, I thought they all wrote terrific essays telling me why they didn’t consider Moby Dick worth their time. I felt like their writing had really improved since the beginning of the school year. However, it broke my heart, because I had kidded myself that they had enjoyed the novel since they hadn’t complained at all.
I find it interesting to reread the novel again this year. I find myself slowly opening up to it. I look forward to meeting this fellow Ahab again.
Next week: Please read chapters Chapters 15-20, e.g. "Chowder" through "Going Aboard."
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